Karin L. Johnston

The number of books, conferences, and media programs focusing on the resurgence of religion in domestic and international politics is an indicator of how important this issue has
become to both policymakers and the public at large…

The United States and Germany have long supported the United Nations. In recent years, however, the two countries have at times been at loggerheads over whether or how to involve the organization in addressing international conflicts…

Differences over the Iraq war led to unprecedented levels of tension in the German-American and transatlantic relationships. The intensity of the division was reflected in the news coverage and images played out in the media on both sides of the Atlantic…

The Franco-German relationship is in a crisis, accused of no longer being capable of providing the impulsion for continued European integration, a function the tandem has successfully performed since the early postwar years. It has devolved, critics charge, into a marriage of convenience driven by a fear of losing influence in an enlarged Europe, and increasingly propelled by national interests to the detriment of Europe and further European integration…

Over the last two years the German-American relationship has been rocked by some of the most tumultuous and emotional conflicts in over five decades—the 2002 German elections and Schröder’s public rejection of American policies in Iraq; harsh recriminations surrounding the failed second UN resolution in early 2003; tensions over the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and future of the broader Middle East; and, above all, the war in Iraq and continuing postwar instability. These conflicts have been played out in intense public debates at home and across the Atlantic and amidst a political and moral tug of war in the media…